The special committee Selig put together to examine the dilemma has delivered a "comprehensive" report but has yet to be presented to all 30 owners. Still, Selig says they're "proceeding at a rather quick pace" and seemed to agree to the suggested analogy that if the stadium issue were a baserunner, he'd be on third base.

Standing in the way of the transition is that the Giants claim San Jose — part of Santa Clara County — as part of their territory. The Giants have supported an organziation called Stand For San Jose that has protested the building of a stadium in downtown San Jose. The Giants' territorial claim can be overturned by a 75 percent vote from MLB owners.

The Giants could fight back by supporting an anti-ballpark campaign in San Jose, where a special ballot referendum (partially financed by MLB) would need to pass, or perhaps even by persuading one of their sponsors to sue MLB (the Giants cannot sue MLB themselves). There's also nothing preventing the Giants from filing a lawsuit against the city of San Jose itself.

As Purdy points out, if the Giants were to file any lawsuit, we'd see "the awkward situation of one MLB franchise spending money to defeat a project supported by another MLB franchise in an election partially paid for by MLB itself."

A's owner Lew Wolff said he's "delighted" to hear that Selig is prioritizing the situation and that MLB is moving toward a decision.

Comments

Lets get this over with. The only thing stands in the way is how much will the Giants get for the rights. Former A’s owners the Haas family showed class by not standing in the way of the Giants to move to San Jose and gave them the rights to San Jose but the new Giant owners will not pay back the A’s in the same classy way.

Where have I heard that before? Yes, the same was said about the Giants who struggled to find support until they got their new stadium. Have you been to San Jose? They support both teams and once the A’s go down there it will be a 2 to 1 advantage for the A’s.

The giants are so greedy. They draw all the big crowds and have a payroll twice the a’s do and oakland plays in the worst stadium in baseball. The territorial rights were given to them 20 years ago when they were in the same position as oakland is now. I hate the giants and that backstabbing organization.

I think you’re missing something..the Giants Class-A San Jose Giants are there. They don’t want to move them, or lose their own territory down there. The A’s have their own territories, so why don’t they move somewhere else? Because they want the sponsors in SJ.

If the a’s wouldnt have given the giants san jose they would be the tampa bay giants playing in tropicana field. I do think the a’s should have to pay the giants some dough to move there i guess that would be fair

So Bud Selig is going to FINALLY put this on the front burner? Is that burner set to “simmer”? Or is it turned up to at least Medium-High?

This is rediculous. With Selig still in charge, the Giants and A’s could still be fighting over this even after 2014 when Selig’s contract is up. Without definitive/punitive action on the part of Selig and ALL the other owners, the Giants can continue to draw this out through other legalities long enough to force the A’s to just go away.

So Bud Selig is going to FINALLY put this on the front burner? Is that burner set to “simmer”? Or is it turned up to at least Medium-High?

This is rediculous. With Selig still in charge, the Giants and A’s could still be fighting over this even after 2014 when Selig’s contract is up. Without definitive/punitive action on the part of Selig and ALL the other owners, the Giants can continue to draw this out through other legalities long enough to force the A’s to just go away.

SF Chronicle wrote a couple days ago about how Mark Davis wants to get the Raiders a new stadium, sounding like he wants to move them to Santa Clara or LA, I’m just curious to see how this all works out

I still don’t get this. San Jose is further away from San Francisco than Oakland. It takes a 5 minute ferry ride to get from oakland to San francisco. It takes 45 minutes to drive from San Jose to San Francisco. The a’s are moving farther away thus opening up all of oakland for the giants. The giants are upset that the a’s are moving in on their MINOR LEAGUE teams territory. They are different teams in different league who don’t affect each other at all. The giants should have no say where another team moves to. This is rediciolus. The a’s could easily sue saying the giants are potentially harming the franchise in terms if future revenue

The San Jose area is home to the some of the wealthiest communities/corporations in the country. Plus, Oakland and San Francisco have a natural socio-economic rivalry thing going on that you can’t really quantify, but it exists. It would not be easy for the Giants to simply poach fans from Oakland.

I still don’t get this. San Jose is further away from San Francisco than Oakland. It takes a 5 minute ferry ride to get from oakland to San francisco. It takes 45 minutes to drive from San Jose to San Francisco. The a’s are moving farther away thus opening up all of oakland for the giants. The giants are upset that the a’s are moving in on their MINOR LEAGUE teams territory. They are different teams in different league who don’t affect each other at all. The giants should have no say where another team moves to. This is rediciolus. The a’s could easily sue saying the giants are potentially harming the franchise in terms if future revenue

It’s sad to see the A’s franchise in such disarray they have so much good history. As a former Expos fan I really hope the A’s get a new stadium because that concrete mess they have there is a joke. (2nd worse park ever behind the Olympic Stadium) At least San Jose is a short ride away from Oakland so its not like they’d relocate across the country, or worse, Washington.

AT&T park is a 20 minute drive from Oakland. It’s an hour drive from San Jose. I don’t see how SJ is more in the Giants territory than Oakland is. Oh yeah, it’s because people in SJ have money. This isn’t an issue of territory, it’s an issue of class and income.

Based on this standoff I’m surprised the A’s owner voted Selig back in.

As a fan of neither team, I’ve got no vested interest in the outcome but come on Giants…..if it wasn’t for the As, your newer stadium and that recent WS win you still wouldn’t have much of a fan base. You got your new stadium, let the As have theirs. That coliseum is a dump and the A’s deserve to have a baseball stadium dedicated to just baseball, not sharing with a football team.

And those throwing out the suggestion of ‘move somewhere else’? I wonder if you could choke that down if your owner was petitioning to move your team out of the area…..

Since San Jose is just as far from Oakland as San Fran, I don’t think it makes sense to keep the Oakland name if they make this move. Are they going to change their name to the San Jose Athletics? Maybe they can be the California Athletics, although that would also be confusing, since the Angels used to have that title.